A sign that it's time to buy a phone

Stacey and I had decided to wake up early on Thursday morning to go to the gym together. I should explain quickly. We both feel like fatasses here so Stacey went on a mad search and found a small gym in los Remedios. She signed up for it a few days earlier, and I hadn't had the chance until Thursday. So we got up around 8:30 and headed over there. We were greeted by the owner, a former body builder who's super friendly and silly. I paid the 30 euro membership fee for one month (so worth it) and got to work. It's a very modest gym with old equipment, but it does the trick. Oh, it's also about the size of a small dance studio. It has a big screen TV that ironically plays cooking shows a lot, 2 old school ellipticals, a bunch of treadmills, a bunch of bikes, lots of weights and benches, some leg and arm weight machines. This would work. I did 20 minutes on the elliptical which felt great. I then spent an hour doing weights and abs. Meanwhile the owner walks around and talks to the people at the gym, sometimes does some lifting himself. He's so funny. Everytime he walked by me he'd say "Lisa!". Btw, I have to thank my parents for giving me a name that is pronounced phonetically and is Spanish-friendly. My name is actually a Spanish word, it means "smooth". Oh yeah. So it was obvious that he kept saying my name because it was probably the easiest American name he'd ever pronounced. He's great. I was loving this gym hard core. At around 11 Stacey and I headed home, we showered, I ate some toast, we packed our lunches and headed to the center of town. We wanted to read by the river and get some sun but it was really overcast and gross out (although very warm). We were strangely hungry so we walked down to a cafeteria by the Cathedral where we split a tapa of espinacas con garbanzos (which were DELICIOUS and less expensive than at Rafael Ochoa). We sat on the steps of the Cathedral to eat, which is a high traffic area, so, as per usual in Spain we got an annoying amount of cat calls and whistles. Suddenly this weird middle-aged man on a bike pulls up right in front of us, stares us up and down (literally, right in front of us) asks us where we're from (we pretended not to understand Spanish) and then he asked me to marry him. I'm not kidding. But it was creepy. I just started to ignore him until he went away. WTF??? Ugh, Spanish men. And they're getting worse now that it's getting warm out and I don't wear jackets anymore. Somebody even had the guts to yell "Big tits! Very good!" (in English) at me! I hate that more than anything, I was honestly upset about it. I mean, am I not aloud to wear tank tops when it gets warm out?? Ugh. I hate it so much. We walked back to the center, hung out a bit, and then went to Lope 2-3. Class was actually kind of interesting because the prof. discussed the Enlightenment (I took an art history class on that last semester) and how it affected Spanish theatre. Really interesting (for me and my art history dorkiness, at least). Then Stacey and I walked back to the center where we met up with Melissa to book our flights to Ireland! Yay! I finally booked my last big vacation, and we found really cheap tickets through RyanAir for about 120euro. So great! We're going the second weekend of May. I am so overly excited you don't even know. I'm going to Ireland! It also felt really great to make my last large purchase of my time here. Sigh, no worries, no worries. Then we had Teatro 4-5 which was fine...we've started talking about "300 millones" so Camacho has students come up and do live readings which are always a treat and a good way to make the hour fly by. My 6-8 class was cancelled, as was Stacey and Katie's, so we all decided to go read by the river...and drink 40's. The weather had drastically improved, it was in the upper 70's and sunny. How could we resist? So Stacey, Katie, Courtney, and I went to OpenCor and bought 40's of Cruzcampo and then headed towards the river. We got a great seat under the lilac canopy along the river. We ended up getting drunk so we didn't do our homework. Melissa was on a run and ran by us so we convinced her to buy one also and meet up with us when she finished. And she did. Then everyone bought another 40 but I was spent for the time being. We just sat around for hours along the river watching the sunset and laughing and giggling and just being awesome. It was so fun! I love it here so much. Then at around 9 we all went our separate ways and planned on meeting up at 11:30 in the Plaza de Cuba for a botellon. We then planned to hit up Antique (the swanky club) since I ran into that guy from Cleveland who I had met weeks earlier (the one opening up an int'l cocktail bar) who was walking with and introduced us to the DJ at Antique, Jorge. Jorge is really cute, and they both told us that we should go. Um, yes! So we had our plan for the night. Stacey and I rushed home, made a quick stop at OpenCor for cheap vodka and a bathroom (Stacey's second 40 was taking its toll on her bladder), and got home just in time for dinner. Dinner was pretty good but small. We had thin slices of grilled eggplant, a plain egg omelette, and endive salad with raisins, walnuts, and homemade blue cheese dressing (that turned out to be the best part of the meal). After dinner, although tired as hell I got ready to go out. Stacey had a pounding headache, so she bailed and passed out right after dinner. At around 11:15 I headed out to the Plaza de Cuba with my water bottle of cheap vodka and diet coke. This is how I avoid spending money in Spain, mind you. I got to the Plaza at exactly 11:30, but nobody was there. This wasn't the first time this had happened, all of us tend to run on the late side. At around 11:45 they still hadn't shown up so I walked over to Melissa and Katie's apt. building to see if they were on their way, but no luck. So I walked back to the Plaza...still nobody. I took this as a sign that I should give in and buy a freaking cell phone. I decided then to just wait there until midnight and then walk home and go to bed. I wasn't upset or frustrated, just feeling silly for going 2 weeks sans phone. I figured that there was either a miscommunication or they tried to call Stacey and give new info or say they were going to stay in or something...and Stacey was back at our piso. So at midnight I began walking home. I decided to take the route that goes right by Melissa and Katie's building in case I should run into them, but no luck. I was nearing my street when all of a sudden there's Melissa and Katie! They were freaking out, so happy to see me yelling "Where have you been??" and such. Turns out that they had sent Stacey a text message saying to meet up at Cadillac to pre-game since it would be easier for us and we could then walk to Plaza de Cuba together. But I wasn't with Stacey. Haha. Katie and Melissa were all concerned and apologetic, but I kept saying not to worry about it and that it really was my fault. What irony, I tell ya. And what luck running into them there! Wow. I love how things just work out sometimes. We then walked to Plaza de Cuba where we met up with Courtney and Jessica. It was such a nice night that we didn't mind just hanging out there and drinking for awhile (besides, people don't start showing up to Antique until about 2 or 3). While there we ran into Lizzy and Elena who also live in los Remedios and were walking back from dinner with Rachael's parents. We all talked for awhile, made great conversation talking about anything and everything. Soon they went back home and at around 1:30 we decided to move our little party over to Madigan's for car bombs or beer or something. Madigan's was pretty empty, but we just took over. Well, not really. We just hung out at the bar and watched music videos and talked. Courtney, Melissa, and Katie ordered cider while Jessica ordered a SoCo with lime. I didn't order anything because a) I didn't want to spend any money and b) I was already drunk enough off of the vodka I had brought. So we stayed there for awhile while everyone got progressively wasted. By 2:30 Courtney, Melissa, and Katie were all pretty wasted and just wanted to go home. It was actually pretty hilarious. I was drunk, yes, but not as much as they were, so it is always good entertainment to witness others and their shenanigans. Melissa, Katie, and I walked home together and I was passed out by 3:30am. A very fun, chill night preceded by a fun, chill day. I love my Spanish life!